Living in the Shadows: Latina Domestic Workers in the Texas-Mexico Border Region is the result of surveyors’ hard work knocking on doors, gaining trust and gathering data, and is the very first quantitative study of a sizable number of domestic workers in the Texas–Mexico border region. The data provides us with a fact-based portrait of the difficult conditions domestic workers in the region face. The report findings will be used to shape ongoing organizing and advocacy to improve conditions and end workplace abuse.

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency, clarified more than ever that the fight for women’s equality is inextricably linked to realizing the needs of immigrant women and women of color. While the executive orders, guidances, rhetoric and tweets of the first 100 days stirred hear and anxiety in communities around the country and the world, immigrant women and women of color continued to raise their voices by organizing, mobilizing, engaging members of Congress and local elected leaders in order to lead and defend our democracy.

This report documents serious and widespread mistreatment of domestic workers – nannies, housecleaners, and caregivers – in the United States. They are underpaid, in many cases less than the minimum wage, and often at levels too low to adequately care for their own families. They are almost universally excluded from coverage by labor laws and usually work without a contract or any kind of agreement, written or oral, with their employers. They often perform work that is physically punishing, involving heavy lifting, long hours, and exposure to potentially harmful cleaning products.

With Millennials becoming parents and Baby Boomers getting older, the need for care across all generations of our families is growing. Many people can no longer rely on just family to provide the care they need. One of the most important steps we can take – and must take – in creating a family-centered caregiving system built for the 21st century is to address, head-on, the question of how we better provide long-term services and supports (LTSS) for our aging population and people with disabilities.

This report offers new findings about human trafficking in domestic work, a sector largely composed of immigrant women. Through data gathered from in-depth interviews of groups organizing domestic workers who have survived human trafficking, we present our findings on the prevalence and trends related to trafficking in this labor sector. With the Trump administration’s intensified focus on criminalization, immigration enforcement, and deportations, the challenges facing trafficking survivors are even more urgent.